Official Blog of Author MICHAEL THOMAS BARRY.
A blog which discusses varied topics that are related to the authors many books. Michael is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com and a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books.
Questions or comments can be sent to ocauthor6434@gmail.com

Friday, November 22, 2013

George Eliot was born - 1819

On November 22, 1819, author Mary Ann Evans, later known
as George Eliot was born in Warwickshire, England. She attended several schools
until her mother's death in 1841, after which she moved to Coventry with her
father. In Coventry, Eliot grew close with her neighbors, the radical
intellectual Bray family. With their encouragement, Eliot began writing
translations and reviews. After her father's death in 1849, she moved to London
to become a freelance writer. There, she boarded with the family of John
Chapman, who had published some of her work. Chapman purchased the Westminster
Review in 1842, which Eliot edited for three years. During this time, Eliot
became involved with married journalist and writer George Henry Lewes. Lewes
was unable to obtain a divorce under strict Victorian statutes, so Lewes and
Eliot lived together, but never married. Her polite Victorian acquaintances
refused to call on her. Fearful that her unconventional relationship would
provoke unfair criticism of her work, she began publishing fiction under the
pseudonym George Eliot. Her earliest published works were compiled and published
as Scenes of Clerical Life (1858). Her first full-length novel, Adam
Bede, was published in 1859. It was well received, as were most of her
other six novels, including The Mill on the Floss (1869) and Silas
Marner (1861). Middlemarch, published in eight parts from 1871 to
1872, is considered Eliot's most famous work. The novel presented a sweeping
survey of all social classes in a rural town, drawing psychological insights
that set the stage for the modern novel. After Lewes' death in 1878, Eliot
married John Cross, her investment manager who was 20 years her junior. She
died on December 22, 1880 in London.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Literary Legends of the British Isles.
The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links: